Chapters · Dressrosa › Punk Hazard

Chapter 656: Adventure on the Burning Island

Arc: Punk Hazard · Saga: Dressrosa · Released: 2011-12-26

Summary

The Straw Hats’ landing party (Luffy, Zoro, Usopp, Robin) is attacked on the shore of a burning island by a giant fire-breathing dragon that — to their disbelief — appears to talk and asks whether they are “with those Seven Warlords.” After a running battle (Luffy’s Gum-Gum Jet Bullet, Zoro’s Three-Sword “Ultra Tiger Hunt,” Usopp’s Green Star: Trampolia), Zoro fells the dragon with the one-sword Iai technique “Death Lion Song.” A voice they thought was the dragon’s turns out to come from a human stuck in its head. Meanwhile, on the Thousand Sunny southwest of the island, Sanji notices a creeping mist before he and the rest of the on-ship crew (Nami, Brook, Franky, Chopper) are knocked unconscious by gas; gas-masked “PH” creatures board the ship, bind the crew, and resolve to “offer them to master,” reasoning no one will miss a few pirates. Back on the island, Luffy pulls the lodged body free and is horrified to think he tore the man in half — but the freed piece is revealed to be a living pair of legs with no upper body, which hops away “poot”-ing, sensing presences, and swearing vengeance on a Warlord who escaped its wrath.

New reveals

• The island is named on-page: Punk Hazard (“BACK ON PUNK HAZARD,” p. 18). Title billing it “the Burning Island”; only the fire/flame half is shown this chapter.
• A giant fire-breathing dragon guards the shore; it seems to speak and is wary of the Seven Warlords — but the “talking” is really a person lodged in its head.
• A living, bisected samurai — only a lower body / pair of legs, alive and ambulatory, able to sense presences — is recovered from the dragon and flees vowing to take revenge on “that buffoon of a Warlord.”
• The Thousand Sunny crew (Sanji, Nami, Brook, Franky, Chopper) is incapacitated by a knockout gas and abducted by gas-masked “PH” creatures acting for an unnamed “master.”
• Cover (From the Decks of the World, Vol. 38): Water Seven’s second sea train, the Puffing Ice, is complete.

Foreshadowing seeds planted

Payoffs (seeds from earlier chapters that resolve here)

(None resolved on-page this chapter.)

Mentions / appearances

• Characters (appear): Luffy, Zoro, Usopp, Nico Robin, Sanji, Nami, Brook, Franky, Tony Tony Chopper
• Unnamed first appearances: the severed living samurai legs (no name given on-page); the gas-masked “PH” creatures; the giant fire-breathing dragon
• Cover: Iceberg and Water Seven shipwrights with the Puffing Ice sea train
• Locations: Punk Hazard, Thousand Sunny, Water Seven (cover)
• Lore: Sea Train (Puffing Ice, cover), Seven Warlords of the Sea (referenced)

Notable panels

• Page 1 — Title page / cover: “From the Decks of the World, Vol. 38: Water Seven — The Second Sea Train Is Complete.” The Puffing Ice locomotive at Water Seven, with Iceberg and shipwrights celebrating.
• Pages 2-8 — The dragon attacks; the crew can’t believe a dragon is real, then that it can talk; Luffy’s Gum-Gum Jet Bullet, Zoro’s Three-Sword Style: Ultra Tiger Hunt.
• Page 14 — Zoro’s One-Sword Style Iai: “Death Lion Song” fells the dragon (large impact panel).
• Pages 16-17 — The Thousand Sunny southwest of the island; Sanji clocks the mist too late; gas-masked “PH” creatures truss the unconscious crew for “master.”
• Pages 18-19 — Luffy frees the lodged body; the living legs hop away “poot”-ing, vowing revenge on a Warlord.
• Pages 20-26 — Volume 66 back-matter (Oda’s “KEY Segment” note on One Piece Film Z; “Coming Next Volume” Vol. 67 preview; ads). NOT part of chapter 656’s story; excluded from canon for this chapter.

Open questions raised

• Whose are the severed legs, and where is the rest of the samurai’s body? Which Warlord bisected him?
• What is the gas, who are the “PH” creatures, and who is their hidden “master” on Punk Hazard?
• Why is a Warlord operating on a “burning island” in the New World, and what is being done with the abducted pirates?
• What made Punk Hazard a burning island in the first place?